While people will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first
ascent to the highest peak on Earth next May, the Himalayan
summit's original name has yet to become known among the
international community.
It
is appalling to see that Mount Qomolangma, the serene holy mountain
of Tibetans, is still known to the world as Mount Everest due to
the ignorance and arrogance of British colonialists of past
centuries.
It
is high time for the international community to stop referring to
Qomolangma with a false name and to recognize the peak by its true
Tibetan name, which means "goddess."
The Tibetan people called the highest peak of the Himalayas
Qomolangma for centuries before the British colonialists attempted
to map the mountain.
The mountain was marked as Qomolangma in the official atlas drawn
during the reign of Emperor Kangxi in the early 18th century, when
the British did not even know of the peak's existence.
As
early as May 1952, one year before New Zealander Edmund Hillary and
Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay successfully climbed to the top
of the highest summit, the Chinese Government officially announced
that the highest peak of the Himalayas in China's Tibet was
originally named Qomolangma.
"It is a great mistake to refer to the summit of our country by the
name of an imperialist colonial official," said the Chinese
Government's statement. "All texts, atlases and other works should
no longer incorrectly refer to it as 'Mount Everest' but as 'Mount
Qomolangma'."
This statement, however, was ignored by the Western world, and the
highest summit on Earth is to this day referred to by the name of
Sir George Everest (1790-1866) the British surveyor-general of
India.
Until today, the world is still misled into persistently
humiliating Mount Qomolangma with English-language hegemonism.
As
Tibetan scholar Gelek put it, "It is time for the Western world to
respect us Tibetans by recognizing the highest peak on Earth by its
Tibetan name, Qomolangma."
British colonialists raped the sacred mountain of the Tibetans by
giving it a false name.
Those who genuinely respect the Tibetan people's cultural heritage
will have no objection to calling the mountain by its Tibetan name.
Once people know the historical context of the name of the Earth's
highest summit, they will embrace the name Qomolangma.
(China Daily November 18, 2002)